Derk-Jan Dijk

Derk-Jan Dijk PhD, FSB, is Professor of Sleep and Physiology and Director of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre and Director of Sleep Wake Research of the Surrey Clinical Research Centre. He is a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. He previously was a Senior Research Associate in the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Zurich, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Neuroscientist in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Dr Dijk has more than 30 years of experience in clinical sleep research. His current research interests include the pharmacological manipulation of sleep and cognition; the role of circadian rhythmicity in sleep regulation; identification of novel-biomarkers for susceptibility to the negative effects of sleep loss; understanding age and sex related differences in sleep physiology and sleep disorders. His research is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, The Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Philips Lighting and several major pharmaceutical companies.

Dr Dijk has published more than 160 research and review papers in the area of sleep and circadian rhythms. Dr Dijk is invited frequently to speak at international sleep meetings and he has given opening and plenary lectures for the joint meeting of the Canadian Sleep Society, American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society, The European Sleep Research Society and the Hong Kong Sleep Medicine Society.

Dr Dijk has served as an Associate and Deputy Editor to SLEEP and is currently Editor of the Journal of Sleep Research. He also serves as consultant to the pharmaceutical industry. Dr Dijk is vice-president of the World Sleep Federation.